This collection has been
reviewed by the Reagan Library staff and it is available for research.You may access this collection in our
research room.There is no need to file
a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for any of the contents of this
collection.

PUBLIC LIAISON, WHITE HOUSE
OFFICE OF: Records, 1981-1989

Office History

The
Office of Public Liaison was first formalized during President Gerald Ford’s
administration in 1974.Its
responsibilities are to communicate the President’s policies and agendas with
various interest groups, ethnicities, religious, cultural, and economic
associations and groups. It serves as the first place these groups present
their interests to a President’s administration.The Office was expanded during the 1990s to
include liaison to intergovernmental entities.The office has currently been renamed to the Office of Public Engagement
and Intergovernmental Affairs.

Five
different individuals directed this office during the Reagan Administration.
Elizabeth Hanford Dole was the first Assistant to the President for Public
Liaison working from January 1981-March 1983 when she left to become Secretary
of the Treasury. She was followed by Ambassador Faith Ryan Whittlesey.Whittlesey served
as Reagan’s Ambassador to Switzerland and then was Assistant to the President
for Public Liaison from April 1983-March 1985.She was reappointed US. Ambassador to Switzerland and served until June
1988. Linda Chavez followed Whittlesey after working
as the Staff Director of the US Commission on Civil Rights.Chavez remained as Deputy Assistant to the
President for Public Liaison and director of the Office of Public Liaison until
April 1986. Mari Maseng, a former Reagan White House
speechwriter, returned to the White House in May 1986 as Deputy Assistant to
the President for Public Liaison and remained until June 1987. Maseng left the White House again and returned in 1988 to
the Office of Communications and Planning.The final individual to lead this office was Rebecca Range, (now Rebecca
Cox).Range joined the White House as
Deputy Assistant to the President for Public Liaison and Director of the Office
of Public Liaison in September 1987 and remained until the end of the
administration.

During
the Reagan Administration, the Office of Public Liaison was one of the largest
offices within the White House and the Library currently has 64 additional
individual collections from this office.

The Public
Liaison office structure and specialties reflected the changing interests and
administrative habits of the different directors of the office. Mrs. Dole was interested in broad policy issues
for specific groups – women, blacks, conservatives, etc.She was also involved in assisting with
budgeting issues for the federal government and helping the administration pass
tax and budget bills. Her office was run with a deputy director, Red Cavaney.The
original structure had two Special Assistants, Jack Burgess and Diana Lozano,
reporting to Cavaney on the work and production of
their groups. Burgess was focused on business, labor and economic issues and
Lozano’s group had the responsibility for ethnic groups, women groups and
social issues.This structure lasted for
less than six months, and was revised to have all assistants report directly to
Caveny.Lozano
took over liaison for Hispanic groups and Burgess worked primarily with
business groups.

Dole’s
office was tasked with trying to deal with the “gender gap.” This involved
Reagan’s lesser popularity with women as compared with men voters.The country was then involved in the final
efforts to pass the Equal Rights Amendment for women.President Reagan had taken a stance against
the ERA stating laws were already on the books to guarantee women’s equality.

Dole
created a project to make sure these laws were on the books and state
discriminatory laws were removed.The
project was called the “50 States” project and it passed from Thelma Duggin and Catherine Bedell
(outside consultant) onto Trudy Morrison and Eliza Paschell
in later years.

When
Dole left in March 1983, many of her staff also left including Red Cavaney. Mrs. Whittlesey focused the
office much more on social issues of interest to her including the
right-to-life, religious issues, and the fight against communism in Central
America.Under Whittlesey,
the Office of Public Liaison became heavily involved in the Outreach Working
Group on Central America and the public diplomacy efforts of US foreign
policy.She specifically hired writers
to publish “The White House Digest” which included numerous articles on the
plight of Central Americans and why the United States should be involved in the
area.

Linda
Chavez was Director of Public Liaison for a relatively brief time, and appears
to have maintained most of Whittlesey’s office
structure.Chavez was close to Patrick
Buchanan, the Director of Communications, and Public Liaison was involved with
assisting a coordinated message through Buchanan’s office.Under Chavez, the move to place more emphasis
on “groupings” of Public Liaison Associate Directors and Special Assistants
began. Chavez’s deputy, Donald Eberly, did not remain
with Public Liaison after Chavez left.

Mari Maseng continued this practice of “grouping” like-minded
constituency and issues and under her Carl Anderson was in charge of staff
members on social issues and religious liaison, LinusKojelis was in charge of ethnic issues and business
issue.Anderson had such authority that
he actually was acting director of the Office during the gap between Maseng and her successor, Rebecca Range.

Scope & Content

There
appears to have been little use of “office” records as are evident within other
White House offices. Over time, the office organized itself into groupings of
“like” or associated issues and constituencies and these served as office
functions for the Office.Collective
material appears to have been within these groupings and the Library has
continued to maintain it there. This collection reflects these practices and
consists of three small series.

This
collection is arranged in three series: SERIES I: Personnel; SERIES II: Subject
File; SERIES III: Telephone Messages.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

SERIES I: PERSONNEL, 1981-1983
(.02 l.ft.,
Box 1)

This
series consists of material related to personnel issues like promotions,
salaries and hiring of certain individuals.The personnel involved were for Associate Directors,
or executive assistants and in one case a special consultant on the 50 States
Project. This series covers mostly Mrs. Dole’s time period as the Director of
the Office of Public Liaison. The series is arranged alphabetically by last
names.

SERIES II: SUBJECT FILE, 1980-
(2.4 l.ft.,
Box 1-6)

This
series consists of material related to budget, Central America, education,
youth and the Soviet Union.It also
includes some administrative manuals and working papers. The majority of the material
is publications. It is arranged alphabetically.

SERIES III: TELPHONE MESSAGES,
1983-1985 (2.4 l.ft., Box 6-15)

This
series consists of material related to telephone messages. The messages are for
a select group of staff members who worked in a “group” situation on education,
Hispanic and religious outreach.It is
likely they shared support staff. The majority of the messages are for staffers
Douglas Rigg, John Rousellot,
LinusKojelis, Robert
Reilly, Catalina Villalpando, Adis
Vila, Luis Acle, Bea Mirabelle, Linda Chavez, Donald Eberly and Douglas Holliday. Elizabeth Dole has her own
telephone message series and other message notebooks can be found in other
individual collections.